Breakthrough Innovation or Disruptive Innovation?

Aren’t breakthrough innovation and disruptive innovation the same thing? It’s a common question when building innovation strategy. After all, the car, the telephone, the smartphone, the electric car, the solar panel, weren’t these all breakthroughs that were also disruptive? In a sense, yes. But it’s the context of the innovation that’s important.

Zipcar is a good example of the breakthrough innovation. At its roots, Zipcar operates like any other car rental company. You book a car for a set amount of time and you return the car after you’re done. The breakthrough was to remove the centralized rental location and by placing Zipcars in neighborhoods and high-traffic areas, renting them via apps and websites, in-person and across counters. Zipcar made car rental easier and more accessible.

At the same time, Zipcar hasn’t caused the collapse of “traditional” car rental companies. Zipcar would be disruptive if Hertz, Enterprise, and other car rental agencies ceased to exist as they currently stand as a direct result of Zipcar’s innovation. Zipcar has shaken up the car rental model, but rental car companies as we know them aren’t going anywhere.

Breakthrough Innovation Or Disruptive Innovation?

Disruptive innovation and breakthrough innovation can overlap. The latter can become the former as the consequences unfold, like a rainstorm slowly filling a lake until it overflows. Amazon started as a humble bookseller with the breakthrough idea of making ordering books via mail simpler and easier, then slowly began reshaping the retail sector, a change that has accelerated over time to become disruptive.

Breakthrough is an inherent part of innovation strategy. Not so with disruption. Businesses must grow by finding new markets and improving what they offer and how they interact with their customers and clients. Often, close contact with customers and entertaining new ideas lead to breakthroughs.

Innovation is more than making a change. It’s making a difference.

It’s also worth remembering that “disruptive” innovation is often a process that builds over years or even decades, and often comes from an unmet need. In the ’90s, well before Elon Musk started building electric cars, General Motors built and sold the EV1, an electric car that was incredibly popular in California, but shut the entire program down and destroyed the cars for reasons economists and environmentalists are still debating. If GM had listened to its customers, Tesla might never have existed. As it is, Tesla’s success has overshadowed the fact that hybrid vehicles are so popular, hybrid supercars are coming to market, the effect of Toyota’s breakthrough Prius in 2000.

Disruptive innovation is always something to strive for, but breakthrough innovation can be just as stunning. So build your innovation strategy around both. Not everybody can invent the next iPhone, but if you open up new markets for your business and push your company forward striving to make it, it’ll be hard to argue that wasn’t effort well spent. Ready to supercharge your innovation strategy? Join the IdeaScale community.